What Was the ♐Broker Booth Support System (BBSS)?

The Broker Booth Support System (BBSS) was a comprehensive electronic system used by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to send orders between brokers and trading booths on the floor of the exc꧒hange. The BBSS was an extremely efficient way to direct order flow in the early days of electronic trading.

Before its advent, brokers used paper forms and sent runners to give orders to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:floor traders to execute. The BBSS permitted the NYSE to handle daily trade volumes in excess of one billion shares. In 2004, the Broker Booth Support System (BBSS) was replaced by NYSE Tradeworks, a new electronic system implemented by the NYSE.

Understanding the Broker Booth Support Sysඣtem (BBSS)

With the advent of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:electronic trading in the 90s, stock exchanges started to take advantage of new technology to improve how financial trading was done. The goal was to make the execution of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:buy and sell orders faster, more accurate, and more efficient.

The NYSE implemented the Broker Booth Support System (BBSS), a self-developed electronic order management system that was installed at all the trading booths on the floor. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Floor brokers entered all information into the system, leaving digital trails and timestamps to preserve the integrity of the trading process throughout the day.

With every keystroke logged into 🥃the system, trades could be confirmed, and disputes could be resolved quickly. Users could produce customized reports from all the data compiled and organized in the system. While the BBSS was fast and efficient, it was not failproof. There were instances during its tenure when the system went down, causing partial stoppages in order processing.

Brokers on the floor had to return to the old-fashioned method🌼 of writing orders on paper and running them over to trading booths until the tem💙porary technical issues were resolved. Robust redundancy functionalities were then implemented to help prevent future system issues.

Ancillary BBSS Devices

The Broker Booth Support System (BBSS) was not the only modern implementation of electronic trading that the NYSE implemented. For added efficiency and convenience, the NYSE rolled out e-Broker handheld devices for floor use, so that brokers could wander around the floor freely, without having to sit in a booth.

The NYSE also installed X terminals to sit at customer sites. The X terminals, supplied by the NYSE but installed by customers, were connected to the BBSS on the exchange floor, providing remote use𒀰rs with the full range of BBSS services.

NYSE Tradeworks

In 2004, after 10 years of using the Broker Booth Support System (BBSS), the NYSE decided to upgrade its system with a new platform called NYSE Tradeworks. NYSE Tradeworks was created in conjunction with IBM to do away with downtime and allow for scalability for handling ever-increasing volumes.

According to the then chief technology officer (CTO) of the NYSE, Roger Burkhardt, "BBSS set the standard for providing efficient effective order-management capabilities in support of member firms' trading activities on the floor. With Tradeworks, the NYSE will offer the same functionality, adding new features and an improved user interface."

NYSE Tradeworks was also able to provide 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:real-time information, ensuring that traders were not only making trades faster but also more accurately given the ease of access to high-quality information. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Lehman Brothers, now defunct, was one of the first institutions to test and use NYSE Tradeworks as it was slowly rolled out over an 18-month period.

The Bottom Line

The Broker Booth Support System (BBSS) was a pioneering electronic order flow system at the advent of electronic trading in the financial markets. While it was useful in sending orders from brokers to trading booths,ꦬ it eventually became obsolete as technology improved. It was replaced by NYSE Tradeworks.